Labour loses 26,000 members

Labour has lost nearly 26,000 members since last summer, reports suggest.

The number includes only those who have actively resigned their membership, with most people who leave the party doing so by stopping paying. By simply stopping paying there is a six month lag before you are removed from membership numbers.

To actively resign you need to contact your local CLP secretary or the party centrally to be removed immediately.

In the data seen by The Times, more than 15,465 have quit since the middle of December, and around 7,000 members resigned after Jeremy Corbyn whipped the article 50 vote through the commons.

Under Corbyn, Labour became the largest political party in Europe. Labour still has circa 528,000 members, larger than all other parties.

Lord Watts, a former chair of the parliamentary Labour party, said to The Times: “I think the tide is turning . . . I imagine people are losing heart because they can see the polls, they’re talking to their neighbours and people they work with, and are coming to the conclusion Labour is not doing well and, at this point, not convincing the public.”